"Any further restrictions would have more negative impacts" - UN experts

Any further restrictions imposed on Liberia would have more "negative impacts" on the country's already weakened economy, employment, social services and government revenue, a panel of UN experts said. In a report dated 5 October to the UN Security Council, the experts said that a tightening of the existing sanctions regime would have further negative effects on the financial environment, with worsening exchange rates, increasing prices for essential commodities, decreased savings and more capital flight. "These additional aggravating factors and their implications would particularly affect the most vulnerable of Liberia's population given that their resilience and coping capacities are next to exhausted," the report said. "Should the [UN Security] Council decide to establish additional sanctions, it may also wish to consider establishing a mechanism to regularly review their impact on the humanitarian and economic situation of Liberia," it said. According to the panel, this would enable the Council to avoid unintended negative effects on Liberia's population and help to counter public misrepresentations of the sanctions regime and its objectives. It said a ban on Liberian timber exports would probably cause the loss of up to 10,000 relatively well paid jobs. International sanctions on Liberian rubber, with a possible loss of 20,000 jobs, would affect more Liberians than the sanctions on timber, the panel said. Possible restrictions on the Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs, the second most subscribed ship registry in the world with some 1,600 ships flying the Liberian flag, would have quite important and far-reaching consequences given the large numbers of listed ships, the loss of revenue to the government notwithstanding, it warned. The panel was commissioned by the Council to carry out a preliminary assessment of the potential economic, humanitarian and social impact of sanctions on the Liberian population. It also looked at the potential impact of future UN sanctions on Liberia.